A DRUG-DEALING soldier escaped a prison sentence after a judge heard the substance he was selling had been made illegal only a fortnight before he was caught.

Jack Harkess started peddling naphyrone when it was a legal high, available on the internet and sold under brand names such as NRG-1 and Energy1, a court heard. The powder - which provides similar stimulant effects to Ecstasy - was banned in July last year.

It emerged as a novel designer drug after the criminalisation of the similar substance mephedrone, but was sold as plant food or pond cleaner to get around medicine laws.

On August 7, Harkess was caught with £400-worth of the drug near his Stockton home.

He told officers after his arrest that he thought the powder was paracetamol and he was trying to impress friends, Teesside Crown Court heard.

Harkess, 20, of Radford Close, Stockton, later admitted possessing Class B drugs with intent to supply, and was given a six-month prison sentence, suspended for a year.

Judge Howard Crowson also ordered him to pay £500 court costs and carry out 150 hours of unpaid work for the community, but warned him: "This isn't a let-off."

He said the effects of such substances should not be trivialised and spoke of a case he was due to deal with involving the rape of a teenager stupefied by mephedrone.

"I know, and perhaps it is becoming better known among the public, that these drugs can have a dreadful effect," said the judge.

"It had only been banned for about 14 days and that does mitigate to some extent, and reduces, in my mind, the length of the sentence that would have been imposed."

Nigel Soppitt, mitigating, said Harkess effectively gave up a promising career by going absent without leave from his base in Germany to be with his dying grandmother.